World+Traveler

=World Traveler Battle Game= A game designed by: [|Alexandra Allen], [|Lori Cummings], and [|Jenni Topmiller-Spaulding].

=Instructional Objective=


 * The World Traveler Battle Game** teaches geography in a fun and interactive format. People of all ages will enjoy traveling to different places on the globe while learning about our seven continents, countries within these continents, and fun facts about each country. This game is appropriate for children in grades four through adult. It is recommended for use with world geography curriculum, but anyone will have fun playing this game.

The National Geography Standards:
 * [|NSS-G.K-12.1] THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS: Students will understand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
 * **[|NSS-G.K-12.2]** PLACES AND REGIONS: Students will understand the physical and human characteristics of places.

=Learners & Context of Use=

This game is designed for fourth grade students and above. It is a game designed to reinforce prior knowledge of world geography locations. Additionally, players will learn interesting facts and see photos of the country's culture, people, foods, etc. Students who are playing this game should know basic world geography, as they will be traveling to various countries within the seven continents.

This game would be played in the classroom after students have been taught basic world geography. In a typical classroom you would need to ensure you have the proper space for teams to have space to complete some of the challenges. The game is quite kinesthetic as teams will be acting out, designing, building, computing, etc.; therefore, they will need room to work. Each country within a continent has two to three challenges to choose from, allowing the game to be played multiple times. Also, each team need only visit one country in each continent. The game is designed with at least three country cards from each continent, allowing students to play multiple times visiting and learning about a different country each game. Prior to the game students would review or learn about the seven continents, their location, and various countries within these continents. The teacher will model one round of the game, and read the rules to the students. After the game, students would have a class discussion about one of the countries they each visited and sharing its location and cultural aspects they learned.

=Competing Products= **The Amazing Race DVD Game** (requires a DVD player) by Pressman Toys is similar to the TV show and takes people around the world through the DVD. Unlike **The World Traveler Battle Game**, players are not challenged to learn about where countries are located on a map, or learn about the capitals or currency of a country. In designing this game, our primary goal is to expose players to the world map and teach them about world geography in a stimulating and innovative manner. **Passport to Culture** a game where you learn geography and culture facts as you travel around the globe. In this game players move around a board, trying to collect passport stamps by answering trivia questions about the territory they have landed on. Another similar game is **The Amazing Race Board Game** by Mega Brands: players only travel to four locations around the world in this board game. In **The World Traveler Battle Game**, players travel to at least one destination on all 7 continents, learning about world geography every time. **Monopoly Here and Now World** by Parker Brothers is a game board that has the player traveling to cities across the globe having them cross six continents before they can pass GO. This game primarily deals with purchasing a variety of items in different countries. It is not focused on teaching world geography, although it does look like a very fun game to play. **Where in the World?** by Talicor is the last game that we reviewed that is similar to **The World Traveler Battle Game**. **Where in the World?** is a world geography games that has facts about every country in the world including capitals, majors imports and exports, languages and religions. Unlike **The World Traveler Battle Game**, **Where in the World?** is played on several different game boards and does not include any stragegic play. It is a great game to teach geography and cultural information, but **The World Traveler Battle Game** also involves strategic planning to win the game.

=**Object of the Game**=

The object of **The World Traveler Battle Game** is to travel to all seven continents and complete challenges to win puzzle pieces and collect artifacts. The team with the most artifacts wins the game.

=Content Analysis=

Link to Board Game Content Analysis template.

=Game Materials=
 * [|Game Board]
 * [|Plastic] overlay of world map accompanies the game board (it is transparent).
 * [|Six Game Pieces - different colored people one for each team]
 * [|Artifacts (36 (sample of 12 here) different artifacts from 6 continents (not Antarctica))]
 * [|Puzzle] (6 sets)
 * 6 sets of: pens, pencils, pads of paper, clay or play-dough, beads, string, decoders.
 * Classroom teachers should have available: building blocks, world Atlas
 * Welcome Cards (sets of cards from each continent)
 * [[file:cards_africa.ppt]]
 * [|Antarctica] (first card to begin game play)
 * [|Asia]
 * [|Australia]
 * [|Europe]
 * [|North America]
 * [|South America]

Welcome Cards contain the destinations (countries/cities). Each Welcome Card has information about the country. The cards are different, but typically include information about the language of origin, popular food, recreational activities, climate, points of interest within the country, the flag, and the people. Cards have pictures that give the students a visual representation of various aspects of the country. The facts presented on these cards will be used by players at the end of the game to collect their artifacts.

 =Time Required=

The game takes approximately five minutes to set up. The board needs to be out, and all of the game pieces, and cards placed on the board. Challenge supplies need to be set out. The game takes about an hour to play. Tt would optimally be spread out over two class periods. The teams would mark where they left off and pick up on the rest of their journey in the next class meeting.

=**The Rules**=

One person will be a Travel Agent (could be the teacher). Teams will move their game piece to the continent of the same color as their game piece. Each continent contains WELCOME cards for a few countries located on that continent. Teams will draw a WELCOME Card. The WELCOME Card will introduce the teams to different information about the country. They will complete one task listed on the card. This could include: deciphering a code, writing their name in the language of origin, acting out a skit about the country, creating an object out of clay, drawing a picture, etc. Once they have completed the task on their WELCOME card, the Travel Agent will determine if they have earned the puzzle piece from that country. In the event that the challenge has not been completed adequately, the Travel Agent may assign another challenge to be completed.

1) All players begin in Antarctica. Players can be in teams of two or play individually. At least two people are needed to play the game.

(2) The teams will start on the colored continent that matches their game piece. Each team will play on a different continent at the same time until they have been to all 6 continents (Antarctica is the starting point and has just on fact card read by the Travel Agent).

(3) Players arrive at their first continent and select a WELCOME CARD. They read the card and select ONE challenge to complete.

(4) The Travel Agent judges whether or not the team has adequately completed the challenge. If yes, the Travel Agent sends the team to the next continent and gives the team a puzzle piece. If no, the Travel Agent has the team complete another challenge.

(5) Once the challenge has been successfully accomplished, the Travel Agent gives the team a puzzle piece. Two teams might be on the same continent at the same time.

(6) After each team has traveled to every continent and completed their challenges successfully, they will put together their puzzle. Then, they answer questions about the countries they visited to earn ARTIFACTS to display on the appropriate location of their puzzle (which makes a world map when assembled). Each team gets ONE chance to answer a question that the Travel Agent will ask (the Travel Agent will ask a question based on the information from the Country Card the team has visited). If the team correctly answers the question, the team earns an artifact. The team can earn 6 artifacts (none for Antarctica). The team that earns the most artifacts wins. If there is a tie, a tie-breaking question about one country visited will be asked and the first team to successfully answer the question will win (this will continue until a team is named the winner). The winner of the game is titled **The World Traveler**.

**Motivational Issues**
Engagement is provided throughout the game through various elements. The game has an element of curiosity, which is an important strength of the game. The players are taken throughout the world learning about interesting facts and being exposed to various photos of the country. This curiosity provides an intrinsically motivating environment where the students want to learn more, according to Malone & Lepper, which makes learning fun. The visual aspects of the pictures allows the children to become curious about the people in the pictures and wonder how their lives are different or the same. Cooperation is another motivational issue presented in our game. Teams must work collaboratively to complete the challenges successfully. Students also have a bit of control in the game, because they have the choice in the challenges they complete in each country. This aspect of the game allows the students to complete learning centered tasks that suit their personality and interests.

=Design Process= The World Traveler Battle Game was designed to teach world geography in a fun and interactive way. We feel that there is not enough geography taught to American children, particularly those in elementary school. In researching other geography games, we saw that most of them were not very interactive. In order to keep the attention of our game players (students) we opted to create different challenges that would provide hands-on and creative challenges for all players. The various challenges also give the players flexibility and variation so they will be able to play the game many times and it will be a different experience with each play. We reviewed the United States National Geography Standards and chose to build the game around those standards (NCGE.ORG).

Initially, the game was designed as a race around the globe. We soon realized that the game had a lot of down time for players as there were time out sections. Taking advice from our instructor and from our readings that games work well when teams are in flow, therefore down time would interrupt that flow and decrease the fun. We went back to the drawing board and brainstormed on ideas to make the game more hands-on. We looked at other games, such as Cranium Cadoo (Inc. Cranium). We liked that players were involved in a number of challenging activities such as sculpting, drawing, decoding, and acting. These challenging and useful cultural activities will help to create cultural relativism in the game. We decided to add these features into some of our challenges for The World Traveler Battle Game. We created country Welcome Cards for each continent. These cards contain pictures and facts from countries around the globe. The cards are visually appealing with bright photos of the countries the students visit. The pictures were included to give the students a better idea of the cultures, traditions of the country allowing them to make make real world connections, thinking of how the aspects of their life are similar and different to that particular country. In addition, we created fun challenges for the students to complete at least two for each country so they will have a choice picking a challenge suited more toward their learning style, and personality. We wanted to make the games very hands on creating a The game will come complete with clay (for sculpting), paper, pencils, beads and string, decoders. Players can also use their own blocks or Legos® to complete other tasks. We also decided to add a Travel Agent who will help direct the game. This person can be a teacher or another player. S/he will help determine if a team has met their challenges, and be the overseer of fair play. S/he will then ask the questions at the end of the game.

Our initial play test was done with a group of fifth grade students. During the initial play test, the students weren’t given anything but the instructions for the game. The students enjoyed the challenges, especially those with clay. Once they had earned their game puzzle pieces, they wanted to earn their artifacts. It was very interesting to see which ones remembered the facts on their Welcome Cards. Some had not really paid attention to the facts and therefore, did not earn artifacts. Once they lost, they wanted to play again so they could win! They looked more closely at the game cards and tried to remember as many facts as they could. It was really great to see, because this was the main objective of the game – learning world geography. When the students replayed the game for the second time, it was a completely different room. The students were more engaged, and couldn’t wait to get to the end to try to earn the artifacts from the countries they had visited. They didn’t take any less time to complete their challenges, but they all scrutinized the cards prior to turning them in to the Travel Agent. It was a very successful test.

The prototype game board consisted of a basic world map on which each continent was colored differently. After we play tested the game, we determined that a plastic (transparent) overlay would be helpful in showing the players exactly where the countries are on the playable game board. The colored continents are an important component as each team (or player) begins at the continent that is colored the same as their game piece. However, we determined that a separate world map was not as useful as the transparent overlay. The addition of the transparent overlay is very helpful for game play, and gives the players even more information about world geography.